UDC is implementing a 2 year Bachelors degree program in affiliation with a couple of local area high schools. It is hard to imagine that anyone can complete a Bachelors degree in two years but UDC has come up with a plan to maximize post-secondary participation in these high schools so that essentially students would be graduating from high school with enough college credits to start out as juniors at UDC. The 2 + 4 program is still in the planning stages and requires a little tweaking before the final roll out is scheduled but it is on target to be presented to freshman entering high school next year.

So, if you are living in the D.C. area and have a student that is thinking about a streamlined approach to getting a Bachelors degree, you probably ought to keep the University of District of Columbia in your sights. The potential savings that you could experience on college tuition could be astounding.

As part of our Spotlight Series, I would like to shine our attention to the Washington D.C. College Access Program, also known simply as DC-CAP.

They have been in existence for a number of years and their goal and mission is simple: To encourage and enable DC public high school students to not only enroll but also to graduate from college.

DC-CAP currently has centers and advisers in every public high school and charter school in the Washington D.C. district. They have an eye-popping number (5,300) of students enrolled in their program.

The students work with counselors all four years of high school, and they roll over to the five-year college retention division upon graduation. Upperclassmen are paid additional scholarship money to mentor younger students, said Argelia Rodriguez, president and chief executive.

“We give about $2.7 million in scholarships each year, and we try to find as much money as we can,” she said. “It can be for everything from buying books to having money for food to eat.”

The following are some of the programs offered by DC-CAP:

Individual and group counseling

College information resource centers

College application assistance

Financial aid assistance

Parent education

College student support services

“Last dollar” award scholarships

DC-CAP is a non-profit organization that is supported fully by donations and grants from foundations, companies, and individuals. In addition to monetary support, they enlist the help of hundreds of volunteers that help to make all their programs successful.

If you are a family, parent, or student residing or going to school in the Washington D.C. district. I encourage you to utilize DC-CAP as a resource to help make your college dreams a reality. Between scholarship assistance and financial aid education, they should be very helpful in reducing the financial burden that can be attributed to obtaining a college degree.

Also, if you are a philanthropic person looking for a great cause to donate your dollars, DC-CAP looks like a worthy organization if the education of young individuals is near and dear to your heart.

For additional information, you can visit the Washington D.C. College Access Program online here: http://www.dccap.org/